Ridgewater Park Project Still Alive
Board Votes to Send Matter to Committee

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 13, 2007

The Loudoun Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday night to try once more to work out their differences over a proposal to build a large suburban-style development south of Leesburg.

At a public hearing, supervisors voted to send the Ridgewater Park matter to a meeting of the board's transportation and land-use committee, in the hopes of resolving issues that had led county planners to recommend that the board reject the project.

The development would include up to 995 residences, some offices and a medical campus on land where current zoning allows 38 houses. The developer, Leonard S. "Hobie" Mitchel, has offered the county millions of dollars in road improvements and land for a school to offset the cost of providing services to the additional residents.

County staff analysts object to the proposal, however, in part because its dense, suburban layout conflicts with a county plan to preserve that area as a semi-rural buffer between Loudoun's suburban east and rural west.

Dozens of residents and slow-growth activists showed up at Tuesday's hearing to express outrage over the project, which they said would endanger the county's water supply and could open the floodgates to more suburban-style subdivisions in the area.

The area's rapid development "is killing us," Chris Manthos, a Leesburg resident, told the board. "It's killing the regular people to the point where we can't hold on anymore."

Mitchel urged the board to be open-minded about the project, which he said would be a worthwhile addition to the county. He objected to concerns about the water supply, saying he took pains to keep the houses away from Goose Creek. He said he was pleased with Tuesday's vote.

"It's good news," he said. "That way we have a forum to work out our issues."

Ridgewater Park is one of four controversial developments that were on the board's agenda between the Nov. 6 election and the end of its term Dec. 31. Supervisors have rejected one of those projects and approved another. On Dec. 18, their last meeting of the year, they may vote on the remaining two, including Ridgewater Park.

On Jan. 1, the board, now controlled by a Republican majority that generally supports property rights over government land-use restrictions, will change hands to a Democratic majority that favors slower growth in the county.